ATHENS: Hundreds of people shouting defiance attended the funeral Saturday of retired pharmacist Dimitris Chrisoula, who shot himself in centralAthens this week saying government austerity cuts had left him in penury.
"Forward the people, heads high, the only answer is resistance" they shouted, applauding as the coffin arrived atAthens' main cemetery, television pictures showed.
Chrisoula's daughter said in a farewell speech that his act had been "deeply political," while a message from composer Mikis Theodorakis, an icon of defiance against the junta that ruled Greece in the 1970s, was also read out.
Unusually forGreece, the ceremony had no religious component and the remains were to be taken to neighbouringBulgariafor cremation, a practice forbidden by the powerful Greek Orthodox Church.
Chrisoula shot himself inAthens' centralSyntagma Squareon Wednesday, leaving a note saying his pension had been wiped out and that "I find no other solution for a dignified end before I start sifting through garbage to feed myself."
His death prompted new protests and clashes with police over the government's measures aimed at resolvingGreece's massive debt crisis.
Athenshas been forced to cut state spending drastically, and has slashed civil servant salaries and pensions by up to 40 percent to secure bailout loan payments from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.
Hundreds of thousands of Greeks have lost their jobs in the past year, and unemployment currently tops one million, a quarter of the workforce.
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